Monday, December 04, 2006

word sale

One of my more entrepreneurial students is trying to earn a little cash by (BrE, informal) flogging* a word on eBay. Here's a bit of her sales pitch:

The perfect gift for wordsmiths, linguists and bookworms this Christmas.
Buy your loved one their very OWN word! This auction is for something really special: a wonderful personalised gift for the pain who has everything.
I am a Linguistics student and writer, and I will exquisitely craft an original, 100% unique word for the winning bidder. They can show it proudly to their friends, knowing that this word is their very own and made specifically with them in mind. And if you desire, I can use it in writing and encourage others to do so. Eventually, it could even become a recognised word with your own name featuring in a dictionary definition!
The word will land on your doormat within 5 days of auction end, presented beautifully with a professional definition and an essay explaining how it was made, in full linguistic detail!

I'm very happy to report that she has used a fair bit of the terminology from our course (Approaches to Meaning) in her eBay (BrE) advert/(AmE) ad, and she's used it all correctly. Thus, I believe that I can and should endorse her wordsmithing business. (I hereby endorse it!) But as I try to stay out of business transactions with my students, I'll leave it to someone else to bid on her word. Starting bid is £9.95. Or you can skip the bidding and buy it outright for £100.

*As far as I can tell, the 'sell' sense of flog is BrE. (Note the BBC (BrE) programme/(AmE) showFlog It! ) AmE does have the related sense 'to promote relentlessly'.

Whenever I post a comment on this blog (at least until I'm banned from doing so), I have to type some letters from an image-file into a box called word verification. These words are, it seems to me, all new coinings, and ideal for auction. At the moment I'm looking at pythm, which my virtual dictionary defines as the repeated movement made by a snake to mesmerise its victim before pouncing. Bids start at £9.50.

Jaŋari queries my "aboriginal". In my style-book, if the person is joking around, they're allowed to be a bit loose with terminology in an attempt at comic effect. I'd similarly use "Eskimo" if I knew it'd get a laugh, though without any malice or disrespect. I'm not sure if there is a Transylvanian language, or at least one called that. Apologies for offence caused.

Great news about the bid. Vowcoula strongly tipped to sing for her country at next year's Eurovision. Still awaiting firm expression of interest (and 75 cheque) for dmeijs from Dutch tweede kamer. Quite a lot of apparently abusive email from the Gaeltachtwhich, mercifully, I can't understand.

Over on the maverick thread, you'll see news of Mad Queen Bess's acquisition of thisgodlesscommunism's new word for £9.99, as well as coinings of wordjonesing and eBymology. With just a couple of weeks left till the BrE festive season/AmE holidays, I'm offering murphology, the study of Irish word-structure, at a very attractive 49.99 o.n.o.

You've stolen my word (or at least its form), Paul! I tell my students that they get extra (AmE) points/(BrE) marks if they call morphologymurphology. If that takes off, I can guarantee my name in the annals of linguistic history.